Amy Clampitt
Amy Clampitt (June 15, 1920 - September 10, 1994) was an American poet and prose author. Life Amy Clampitt was born of Quaker parents, and brought up in New Providence, Iowa. In the American Academy of Arts and Letters and at nearby Grinnell College she began a study of English literature that eventually led her to poetry. She graduated from Grinnell College, and from that time on lived mainly in New York City. To support herself, she worked as a secretary at the Oxford University Press, a reference librarian at the Audubon Society, and a freelance editor. Not until the mid-1960s, when she was in her forties, did she return to writing poetry. Her first poem was published by The New Yorker in 1978. In 1983, at the age of 63, she published her first full-length collection, The Kingfisher. In the decade that followed, Clampitt published five books of poetry, including What the Light Was Like (1985), Archaic Figure (1987), and Westward (1990). Her last book, A Silence Opens, appeared in 1994. She also published a book of essays and several privately printed editions of her longer poems. She was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and taught at the College of William and Mary, Smith College, and Amherst College, but it was her time spent in Manhattan, in a remote part of Maine, and on various trips to Europe, the former Soviet Union, Iowa, Wales, and England that most directly influenced her work. She died of cancer in September 1994. Recognition Clampitt was the recipient of a 1982 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 1992 MacArthur Fellowship, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Academy of American Poets. Publications Poetry * Multitudes, Multitudes (limited edition). Washington Street Press, 1973. * The Isthmus (limited edition). Coalition of Publishers for Employment, 1981. * The Summer Solstice (limited edition). Sarabande Press, 1983. * The Kingfisher. New York: Knopf, 1983. * A Homage to John Keats (limited edition). Sarabande Press, 1984. * What the Light Was Like. New York: Knopf, 1985. * Archaic Figure. New York: Knopf, 1987. * Westward: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1990. * Manhattan: An elegy; and other poems (woodcuts by Margaret Sunday), Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Center for the Book, 1990. * A Silence Opens: Poems. New York: Knopf, 1994. * The Collected Poems of Amy Clampitt. New York: Knopf, 1997. Prose * (Author of introduction) The Essential Donne. Ecco Press, 1988. * Predecessors, Et Cetera: Essays. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1991. Edited * James Richardson, As If. New York: Persea Books, 1992. Letters *''Love, Amy: The selected letters of Amy Clampitt'' (edited by Willard Spriegelman). New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.Books, AmyClampitt.org. Web, Dec. 28, 2013. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.Amy Clampitt 1920-1994, Poetry Foundation, Web, Aug. 21, 2012. See also *List of U.S. poets References External links ;Poems *Readings in Contemporary Poetry: Amy Clampitt (3 poems) *Amy Clampitt profile & 13 poems at the Academy of American Poets. *Amy Clampitt 1920-1994 at the Poetry Foundation. *Poems ;Audio / video * Amy Clampitt (1920-1994) at The Poetry Archive *Amy Clampitt at YouTube ;Books *Amy Clampitt at Amazon.com ;About *Clampitt, Amy at Infoplease *Amy Clampitt in the Columbia Encyclopedia. *"Amy Clampitt, 74, Late Bloomer Who Rose to Heights of Poetry obituary at the New York Times *Amy Clampitt Official website * Category:American poets Category:1920 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Grinnell College alumni Category:The College of William & Mary faculty Category:Smith College faculty Category:Amherst College faculty Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:Guggenheim Fellows Category:20th-century poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Women poets Category:American women writers